Fantasy
Island: Old Illusions for a New War
AIN Special Report
by Circles Robinson
Havana, Nov 17, (AIN) Once again the troops are bogged down on foreign soil but the US
Defense Department and its generals are on Fantasy Island.
Back in Vietnam, when 50 to 60 locals were killed for every GI, the Pentagon was claiming
victory until the last US soldier was airlifted out of Saigon. Now, with their new smart
technology, the slaughter of some 80 to 100 Iraqis for every American has the top brass
playing Rambo with the "happy" ending.
After officially losing only 138 of his troops during the carpet bombing of what was once
ancient Babylonia and massacring umpteen-thousands of the civilian population, on May, 1,
2003, the commander-in-chief stepped on board the USS Abraham Lincoln and decreed victory
and an end to offensive actions in Iraq.
Yes, the treasured Persian Gulf oil was now US corporate property and the lucrative
billions in reconstruction projects for the newly forged democracy under contract with
Halliburton and other friendly companies.
It was a rout. The good army had terminated the bad guys Arnold S-style and sent in its
dogs to search for the weapons of mass destruction used as a pretext for the preventive
attack. They were never found, but that’s another story.
But surprise, the game wasn’t over. In Iraq, like in the US Major Leagues, there are
no knockouts and however lopsided the score, the game isn’t over until the last out
of the ninth inning. In amateur baseball, a team losing by 10 runs at the end of the 7th
inning is finished, but this is the real thing.
This lesson should have been learned in Vietnam, but no, the US history books
"forgot" to cover that war. They did the same with Watergate and then with
Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua
and countless other pearls of corruption and terror on the receiving end of US
"humanitarian aid" during the 1970s.
Humans have been called the only animal that trips twice on the same stone. What’s
happening in Iraq today is a stellar example.
When the war was supposedly over, it had just begun. Despite the candy for the kids and TV
dinners flown in for the surviving adults, the Iraqis, like the Vietnamese before them,
didn’t bring out the red carpet for the GIs. It didn’t take long for Sylvester
and his likes to see they weren’t welcome, leaving them only brute force to make
things look like Fantasy Island.
A year and a half after the triumphant Bush speech the death toll of US soldiers is now
officially at 1,194 and growing by the day. Many of the thousands of wounded have also
since passed on to heaven or most likely hell-if killing innocent people is still a
violation of the commandments-or lost parts of their bodies, but that’s another
story.
Fallujah is in the news of late. Once again the US command decided to try and eliminate
the armed opposition to their "friendly" presence and blast their way into the
people’s hearts and minds. And blast they have.
The city is in a shambles and littered with corpses and besides the reconstruction dollar
signs lighting up in the eyes of the lucky US corporations, nothing has been accomplished
short of continuing to alienate an entire population. A people the Pentagon claimed it was
trying to save from local and foreign extremists and give the privilege to vote in January
for its designated puppets.
In South Vietnam they held lots of elections too.
Meanwhile, the "insurgents" who in any other land would be called
"resistance," are regrouping and carrying out daring actions throughout the
country. While the US commanders in Kuwait, Qatar or back in Washington might have sweet
dreams, the Iraqis are making it clear that nothing short of the total annihilation of
their people will give a visiting GI a peaceful night’s sleep.
Fantasy Island is now being shown to the unwitting population that just elected George W.
Bush to another four years in the White House. Will history ever stop repeating itself?
Not if corporate America and its front men have anything to do with it./2004
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